


Eveyone Wants a Pool in LA

by SpasticBookworm



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Post buddie make up, Pre Episode: s03e10 Christmas Spirit, Pre-Slash, Things get deep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22116553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpasticBookworm/pseuds/SpasticBookworm
Summary: It's LA, everyone wants a pool.Wherein Buck buys Christopher a pool, a lawyer calls, Carla didn't sign on for this, the two firefighters have A Talk, Christopher is sneaky, and Buck is just glad to be home.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Christopher Diaz, Evan "Buck" Buckley & Christopher Diaz & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1), Evan "Buck" Buckley & Eddie Diaz, Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Comments: 19
Kudos: 266





	Eveyone Wants a Pool in LA

Part One: Christopher

It's a bright and sunny Saturday when Bucks phone rings.

Christopher answers it, even though he’s not supposed to cause it’s not his dads, but Buck is busy with Carla, setting up the pool he bought for the backyard. He told Chris not to tell his dad anything if he calls cause it’s supposed to be a surprise. Chris loves surprises, so he promised.

He thinks that’s who’s calling, so he grabs Bucks phone from its spot on the porch steps, next to where Chris is overseeing the set up.

Buck told him be the foreman, that he has to sit right there and make sure the pool gets put up right. It’s a very important job, and they can’t put the pool up with him.

He even gave Christopher a clipboard that has an LAFD sticker on the back, and a marker, along with the set up instructions.

“Bucky’s phone,” Chris says, smiling, expecting to hear his dad on the other end.

“This is Chase Mackey, I’m calling for Evan Buckley. I must have the wrong number.” The voice isn’t his dads, but Chris doesn’t mind. He can’t spoil the surprise if his dad doesn’t call.

“Hold on I can get him. He’s putting together our pool. He said it’s a surprise for daddy so don’t tell him I told you okay?” Chris sets the phone back down and yells for Buck, who’s currently trying to get the supports around the outer shell of the pool without Carla’s help. Because Carla is too busy laughing, Chris guesses.

Buck does look funny using his foot to hold something in place while reaching to grab something else; Chris has no idea what he’s doing. He really should be looking at the directions, that’s what Carla and Buck told him a good foreman does.

He picks the phone back up and grabs the marker that’s resting on his clipboard. He’ll take a message. That’s also something a good foreman does, right?

“Buck’s busy right now but I can take a message. I got an A in spelling last week.”

He hears the person breathing but he doesn’t talk for a while. That’s okay. Sometimes it takes Chris a while to get the words out too, he can wait.

Finally, the person says: “Tell Mr. Buckley I need him to come to my office and sign a few more forms, acknowledging his refusal of the 4 million dollars and his exiting the suit. Other parties have decided to continue it without his help.”

Chris struggles to write all that; he has the man, Mr. Mackey, he says again, repeat it twice more and spell his name and acknowledge for him before he reads it back and gets the okay and hangs up.

Chris isn’t sure, not really, what it all means, so he doesn’t think about it anymore and turns the instructions back over and tries to figure out what Buck is doing now with that shovel.

___

It’s dinner time when Buck and Carla finish setting up the pool. More Buck than Carla though because Carla abandoned Buck to do her actual job, or at least that’s what Christopher heard her say. Either way, Buck doesn’t come back inside until Chris is already eating dinner and Carla is putting the plate she made up for his dad and the leftovers in the fridge. There’s a plate for Buck too.

“Yours is in the microwave,” Chris tells the dirty and smelly Buck when he comes in, and Chris tries really hard not to laugh at the dirt on Bucks face.  
  
“The pool is finally filling up, no thanks to you,” he says to Carla as he washes his hands.  
  
“I’m not getting paid to set up a pool Eddie doesn’t even know about and probably doesn’t want,” Carla makes a face at Buck and Chris stifles his laugh in a bite of mac and cheese.

Buck looks over at her and frowns. “Who doesn’t want a pool? It’s LA.”

“It’s November. You just want a pool and don’t have your own back yard.”

The new look on Bucks face, and his hands clutching his heart have Christopher laughing outright.

___

It’s after everything and everyone is cleaned up and Carla has gone for the day that Buck starts looking like he did the day Chris spent with him after all the water. Nervous. That’s how he looks.

Buck looks nervous.

Christopher wishes he knew how to tell him that it’s okay, his dad loves Buck, he won’t get mad he bought them a pool. Or sent Carla home early. Or promised to teach Chris how to swim.

Chris reaches over, across the popcorn they’re sharing now, and puts his hand on his friend’s face. “It’s gonna be okay, Kid.”

He watches as Buck goes completely still. Is he still breathing? Chris is about to tap his face again and make sure when Buck lets out what sounds like a laugh but he’s crying too. Adults are weird.

“I hope so, buddy. I really hope so.” Chris lets it, and Bucks face go. His dad will be home soon, and Buck will see how silly he’s being.

The movie is still playing when his dad gets home, but all his attention is on Buck, who looks like he’s going to run for the back door. Chris pats his face again and grins up at his dad. “Hi daddy! Bucky and me are watching the Emperor’s New Groove.”

“H-Hi, Eddie. Um,” Buck looks over at him and Chris reaches for the popcorn. “Carla left you a plate. I told her I’d wait with Chris until you got home so she could stop and pick up her husband’s allergy meds before the pharmacy closed but I can leave if you really don’t want me here it’s just I really like this movie and it’s almost over but I can go I’m not saying I have to stay I know how it ends and my favorite part is just coming up and I can go right after that or now I can go now too!”

Chris doesn’t think Buck breathed that entire time. His teacher was just explaining to them about run on sentences, and he’s pretty sure that was one. He eats another piece of popcorn and pauses the movie so Buck doesn’t miss his favorite part.

“Christopher. Can you go to your room, please? I’ll be in in a minute, thank you.” Chris knows that voice, so he doesn’t argue. He just leans across the popcorn bowl and gives Buck a hug the best he can without spilling anything. Buck hugs him back and whispers goodnight to him.

Chis goes as far as his doorway so technically we went to his room. But then he turns back around as quietly as he can and waits to hear what his dad and Buck say. Only he hears the back door open and just goes to sit on his bed and wait. He wants to bury his head in his pillow when he realizes the pool is about to not be a surprise anymore. Oh well. At least he wasn’t the one that spoiled it.

* * *

Part Two: Eddie

Seeing Buck and Christopher in his living room watching a movie, like nothing happened, is the last thing Eddie expected. He knew Buck spent the afternoon at the house, Carla had told him when he checked in just after lunch. That isn’t what had him pulling up short in his own doorway.

He’d forgiven the younger man, they’d made amends, they hugged it out, it was done. In Eddie’s mind, things were back to the way they were before the lawsuit.

But that was the first time he’d come home to that scene in _months_ and he feels his heart drop to his stomach then fly up to lodge in his throat.

They might never have had this again. He might never have been able to-

“Christopher. Can you go to your room, please? I’ll be in in a minute, thank you.” He doesn’t take his eyes off the other man as his son gives him a hug and slowly makes his way out of the room.

Buck looks terrified. It’s enough to calm him down, makes him sigh and let go of the tension in his shoulders.

He drops his bag beside the couch and nods his head towards the kitchen. He doesn’t know what he wants to say but he knows Chris probably shouldn’t be hearing it, and he’s willing to bet his son is standing in his bedroom doorway, straining to hear.

He walks straight through the kitchen, confidant Buck is following, and right out the back door.

The pool that definitely wasn’t there when he went on shift yesterday stops him dead in his tracks. Buck nearly collides with him, foot stepping and sliding on something, his hands braced on Eddies waist to catch himself and Eddie suddenly can’t breathe.

“Eddie I-” Buck starts, hands falling away once he has his balance.

“Buck-” Eddie says at the same time, spinning to look at the younger man. Buck ducks his head, sheepish smile telling Eddie everything he needs to know. He sighs instead, bends down to pick up whatever Buck slipped on.

“You bought a pool.” He says it calmly, looking down at the clipboard in his hands. It’s set up instructions with Christopher’s writing all over it. The name Chase Mackey stands out and Eddie’s heart stutters.

“Yeah, I mean. It’s LA right? You gotta have a pool. And Chris is so excited about learning to swim! I thought we could get him some of those Spider-man floaties and- and a raft maybe?” His voice trails off, but Eddie is only half listening. He rereads what he can only assume was a phone message for Buck.

_$4 million?_

Buck is still talking, and Eddie doesn’t know what to say. He holds out the clipboard.

Buck pauses, apparently mid-sentence, but he takes the clipboard. “Chris was our foreman for setup,” he says. He opens his mouth to say something else, but Chris’s writing must have caught his attention. Eddie watches as his eyebrows draw together and he swallows, hard.

“I- I left my phone next to Chris. He must have-…I didn’t know,” Bucks meets Eddies eyes and he looks so earnest, like he thinks Eddie is going to, what? Make him leave cause that asshole lawyer called him?

“Four million dollars, Buck?” is what comes out of his mouth and that’s not at all what Eddie planned on saying. Although to be fair, he doesn’t know what he planned to say, but he’s pretty sure that’s not it.

“I didn’t take it. I didn’t want it! I-” Buck looks back down at the clipboard like he can’t look Eddie in the eye anymore. And Eddie is a coward, because he takes a deep breath and turns and walks away, heads down the steps and towards the pool.

“I know you didn’t, Buck.” He refuses to cross his arms over his chest because the thing is, the thing that he’s having trouble with right now is that he’s not at all mad at Buck. Not for the lawyer calling. Not for the lawsuit or cutting them out of his life. Not for trying to buy Christopher’s affections with a pool, when the other man has always had it, and never lost it. It almost feels like it was too easy, letting all that anger go. As soon as Buck was back in their lives, back where Eddie is realizing he belongs, that was it for him. The pieces of his soul snapped back into place and all the anger he felt dissipated like it was never there.

Buck steps up next to him and drops the clipboard on the grass. “I wanted to,” he says softly. “For- for a second, or maybe a minute. I wanted to take that money.” Eddie feels his stomach freeze into a solid ball. He turns to look at his friend, but Buck is just staring at the pool.

“I thought, four million dollars. That would pay for Christopher's school for years,” Buck goes on, and Eddies stomach unfreezes the same time heat spreads along the base of his spine. “I could pay Carla so you could save your money. Or it could pay for anything he might need that the insurance doesn’t cover.”

Buck turns to look at him. “I wanted to take that money and put some of it in a savings account, for Chris. He’s so smart, Eddie. So freaking smart and college is expensive.”

Eddie can’t look away; isn’t sure he knows how to breathe anymore. The smile Buck sends him is almost shy, maybe a little heartbreaking. He can’t seem to open his mouth to say anything. Buck starts talking again before he can try.

“The thing is though, I knew if I took that money, I wouldn’t be able to spend it on the things that mattered. On the people… on the _person_ who mattered. So, it wasn’t even an option, in the end. I told Mackey no, all I wanted was my job back. And I walked out.” He huffs a little laugh and breaks eye contact and _finally_ Eddie feels like he can breathe.

“I didn’t give up four million dollars Eddie, because it was never something I could have had. And I got my family back. I got Christopher and- and you back. That’s worth a hell of a lot more.”

Before he can think about it, and he really should start thinking before he acts, before he speaks, his hand is on Bucks shoulder and squeezes, turning the other man back around to face him. “You’ve always had us. Even when you pushed us away you had us.” He’s vividly reminded of that day, months ago, when he stood in Bucks apartment, trying to convince his best friend that he trusted him.

Maybe he should have worked more on convincing Buck he needed him too.

“Eddie-”

He shakes his head and cuts him off, “if you try to apologize one more time, I’m going to throw you in that pool.” Buck goes still for a second, then Eddie feels all the tension bleed out of his shoulders.

He squeezes his shoulder one more time then moves his hand to the other man’s face, tapping his jaw twice, his thumb dangerously close to his lips. Whatever mood they’d fallen in is broken when Buck starts to laugh; Eddie drops his hand, raises a brow.

“Christopher does the same thing,” he says. He’s still laughing but it’s fond and soft. “And speaking of Christopher, he’s waiting for you. Though I bet you dish duty for a week that he’s out in the kitchen by now, trying to spy on us.”

As one they turn towards the house, just in time to see a shadow move away from the screen door.

“No bet.”

Buck laughs again, and Eddie feels warmth spread through his whole body.

* * *

Part three: Buck

He knows he’s probably pushing it with the pool. He already bought Christopher more Christmas presents than he probably should have, and it isn’t even December yet. He knows he’ll probably end up buying him more. But Chris had mentioned how one of his friends at school was learning to swim, and Buck figured the easiest thing to do would be to have a pool in the Diaz’s backyard to teach Chris in.

So, he bought one.

Buck grimaced as he looked back towards the back door.

Maybe he should have kept it simple. He didn’t need to get one that big, but the yard was bigger than you can generally find in LA and anyway. He’ll have to tell Eddie about the deck that he got the okay from his landlord to add around the pool… eventually. He’ll tell him eventually. Once the contractor gets back to him with an estimate.

He sighs and goes to clean up the living room. Yeah. That may be going overboard, but he has the money, even without the lawsuit settlement.

Telling Eddie the truth about _that_ money wasn’t something he ever planned to do. And thank you Chase Mackey for letting that particular cat out of the bag.

That’s another thing he’ll have to do soon. Buck sighs again and looks around, the murmur of voices from the other side of the house is barely audible. The movie is paused, but Buck doesn’t remember when that happened. He figures Chris must have done it when Eddie came home.

Buck was probably too busy trying to slow his heart rate down to safer levels to notice. He picks up the remote and turns the movie off; trades it for the half-empty popcorn bowl.

He thought he was done with the whole lawsuit fiasco when he walked out the lawyer’s office. He should have known better, in retrospect. As soon as the door closed behind him he never thought of the money again. He maybe even forgot about it completely, as the 118 took him back and things got closer and closer to normal. Now he has to go back to that office again. The thought makes his nauseous.

Maybe he can get Mackey to meet him at Starbucks or something instead. Maybe plan it for right before the start of a late shift, so he can sign and run.

Will he need a different lawyer to look them over before he signs anything?

Buck bites back a groan and resolutely pushes it all to the back of his mind; all that can be a problem for tomorrow’s Buck.

“He wants to say goodnight to you,” Eddie says and Buck startles, popcorn spilling onto the floor. Eddie smirks at him and Buck grabs a few remaining pieces from the bowl and throws them at his friend. One hits him dead center of his forehead. Buck tries his hardest not to laugh but he’s pretty sure it’s not going so well.

Eddie’s shocked look of mock outrage only lasts a second as Buck takes aim with another piece of popcorn.

Eddie catches it in his mouth and Buck is treated with a silent eyebrow of judgment that is usually reserved for when Buck does something ridiculous at work; it does nothing to temper Bucks laugher, though his heart rate speeds up again and he’s wondering if maybe Eddie turned the heater on when he wasn’t looking?

He thought he’d never have this again, the closeness and acceptance. Thought he lost it, even after he dropped the suit. All Eddie’s reassurances having done nothing to temper his worry. But right now, at this moment, in his friends living room, Buck finally feels like all his pieces are fitting back together.

He’s still laughing as he makes his way down the hallway and into Christopher’s room.

“Hey buddy, shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

Chris smiles up at him and Buck feels one more piece settle into place.

“Did Dad see the pool?” Chris asks. Buck sits on the edge of the bed and raises his own eyebrow. It has nothing on Eddie’s, but he feels it gets the point across.

Chris giggles and pulls the blanket up over his head and Buck can’t keep the serious face up anymore; he descends on the boy with tickles and Chris’s giggles turn into full laughs that has Bucks heart feeling as full as it ever has.

“No more spying from the kitchen,” Buck says, but he stops tickling and fixes the blanket, so it’s tucked back into place. If he gets Chris going, he’ll be up too late and Eddie needs sleep after his long shift.

“I promise.” It’s possible the grin on Chris’s face is left over from the tickles, but…

“I know your fingers are crossed, but I’m going to let you get away with it just this once. Because you were a fantastic foreman today.”

The grin gets wider. “I took a message for you too when your phone rang did you get it?”

“Yeah buddy, I got it. You’re a great executive assistant too,” Buck says. He smooths down the covers and avoids thinking about that phone call.

“Are you going to teach me to swim tomorrow, Buck?”

Buck opens his mouth to say, something. He’s pretty sure it’s something about asking his dad first, but he doesn’t get the chance to say anything. He’s oddly grateful, all things considered. Does that make him a coward? Buck figures it does, at least a little bit.

“Only if you go to sleep soon,” Eddie says from the doorway. Buck hadn’t heard him come in but he feels his smile growing softer as he turns to look at his friend. His heart skips a beat at the loving look on his face and he wonders if his own face looks the same.

It probably does.

Buck watches as Eddie walks up to stand next to him and moves to get up, but a hand settles on his shoulder. “And only if you say please.”

“Please Buck, will you teach me to swim tomorrow?” Buck looks back at the tired boy and brushes some hair off his forehead.

“Of course I will, Superman. We need to get you a swimsuit and some pool toys first though Like a raft, and some of those noodle things. Oh, maybe we can find one of those rafts that look a turtle! We can go shopping tomorrow morning and have some lessons after lunch. We just have to convince your dad to come with us.” He side-eyes Eddie and there goes his heart again. Maybe it’s arrhythmia. He should get that looked at.

Or maybe it’s something he hasn’t let himself think about.

Well. Maddie always did say he was a champion procrastinator in school: He’ll think about that later, too. Once he gets Mackey out his life for good.

“So a turtle raft, a new swimsuit, some weird noodle things…” Eddie ticks off on his fingers of free hand. Buck nods along. Chris’s eyes are getting droopy, even if the smile is still firmly in place.

“And some goggles.” He adds, looking up at his friend.

“And some goggle,” Eddie repeats. They’re eyes catch and maybe Buck should start thinking about it all a little bit sooner...The hand on his shoulder squeezes and Eddie nods his head towards Chris.

Buck lets out the breath he absolutely wasn’t holding and looks down at the bed. Chris’s eyes are closed.

“Night buddy,” Buck says softly. He leans forward and brushes a soft kiss on his forehead before standing up and watching Eddie do the same.

“I can’t believe you bought him a pool,” Eddie whispers as they make their way to the door. Buck switches off the bedroom light, the soft light from the hallway casting a warm glow into the room.

A sleepy voice comes from the bed before Buck can respond. “It’s LA, dad. Everyone wants a pool.”

Tomorrow he’ll talk to Eddie about the decking that’s going up, and probably about everything he has planned for Christmas. Tomorrow he’ll deal with that phone call from Mackey, and get the lawsuit behind him once and for all.

But for tonight, he’s with his two favorite people, all his pieces are coming back together, and Buck just laughs.

**Author's Note:**

> When I lived in LA all I wanted was a pool. I never got that pool, so I gave Christopher one.  
> There will be a sequel out soon! 
> 
> Editing this one gave me hives so I'll officially be looking for a beta reader in the coming days.  
> Find me on Tumblr, where I post most of my fic ideas and snippets: no-anchovies-please


End file.
